Glacier Distilling making hand sanitizer, and a little whiskey

Glacier Distilling Company in Coram is diverting a portion of its whiskey production towards producing ethanol for hand sanitizer.

The 10-year-old company, which had closed its doors to the public on March 27, has been keeping its stills running, the products of which are mainly being barreled as whiskey. But since the cocktail bar has closed and delivery to bars and restaurants has all but ceased, the distillery has been looking outside the box for ways to continue production, keep the production crew engaged and employed, and contribute to the community in this time of need, owner Nicolas Lee said.

The distillery recently made a 50-gallon batch of hand sanitizer following a widely accepted World Health Organization recipe that involves 190 proof ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and glycerol. This first batch, largely considered a test run, said Lee, has been used extensively by the distilling staff. However, it turns out that a little goes a long way and the company has already begun to donate and distribute from the initial quantity. Lee hopes to generate 200 more gallons within the next few weeks.

It takes about one week, Lee said, to go from mixing a 200 gallon batch of mash to a pristine 20 gallons of ethanol at 95% purity. The process, which diverges slightly from normal production of lower-proof, flavor-packed whiskeys, is basically identical to the process of making the company’s Glacier Dew vodka.

For sanitizer, the process begins by mixing 400 pounds of pulverized grain into a 200-gallon distilling mash that takes around three days of fermentation to produce enough alcohol, or ethanol, to then be gleaned by distillation. The fermented mash is sent first to “Brutus,” the company’s pot still, where it is distilled twice, each run taking nearly a day. It is then transferred to the higher-tech reflux still, “Max,” which, after three more distillation passes, can produce an industrial grade 95% ethanol — the level of purity required both for a vodka’s neutral spirit qualification and for the minimum potency as the active ingredient in the WHO topical antiseptic formula.

Typically a 95% ethanol, or 190 proof alcohol, is cut more than in half with purified water to produce an 80 proof vodka, nearly doubling the final 20-gallon yield. For sanitizer, the full strength is necessary to produce, after dilution through additional ingredients, the 80% ethanol strength recommended by WHO for minimum sanitation efficacy.

Manufacturing ethanol for antiseptic purposes is not, as Lee said he has overheard people say, a byproduct of the process.

“It is the ultimate product of the process,” he said.

While ethanol is self-produced and glycerol is such a massively used additive that both are obtainable,

Lee has found limitations in hydrogen peroxide and plastic bottle availability. The future accessibility of these components will determine whether this venture can continue, he said.

Whitefish Pharmacy in Whitefish had donated a supply of hydrogen peroxide to help launch the initial production, and a local cider-producer has donated a large quantity of gallon jugs for the effort, but online supply of both components is becoming harder and harder to come by.

Lee recently gave nearly two gallons of sanitizer each to Heavens Peak Health Care in Columbia Falls and Whitefish Pharmacy in Whitefish. Both of these small businesses said they were nearing the end of their stock, and that the donation would keep them supplied for the next one to two months.

Laura Hall, owner of the recently established family clinic Heavens Peak Health Care, had heard about Glacier Distilling’s sanitizer through a patient and was excited and grateful for the connection.

“Just yesterday I was sitting there thinking ‘how am I going to get sanitizer,’” Hall said. “Our medical supplies, masks, everything, it’s all back ordered and stuff is going to the hospitals first, so when we heard about this, it was like, I’m gonna call them because we need this for our patients and our staff here. Being a small rural clinic it was great to get the input that he was doing this.”

Glacier Distilling has been inundated with requests from dozens of organizations expressing interest. At this stage, said Lee, the company is trying its best to navigate distribution of the commodity, hoping to focus on the most at-risk organizations first. If interested in receiving sanitizer, organizations are directed to contact the company at info@glacierdistilling.com.

Throughout the process, Glacier Distilling has been working with the Montana Distillers Guild which has been instrumental, Lee said, in allowing distilleries across the state to help each other transition to ethanol production for antiseptic use. The guild has helped Glacier Distilling stay in compliance with FDA regulations, which have loosened recently to compensate for the supply shortage, and which are changing on a daily basis. Keeping abreast of regulations could allow Glacier Distilling to eventually sell the sanitizer, but for now, the company is still relying on liquor store sales to keep them afloat through the transition.

The distillery continues to fill barrels at a moderate pace to aid in “trying to just ride this [epidemic] out, and hopefully we’ll have some nice whiskey to celebrate with when everything opens up again,” Lee said.